Acadia’s Founding Father

George B. Dorr, a gentleman scholar and lover of nature, devoted most of his adult life to the creation, maintenance, and expansion of Acadia National Park. The son of affluent Bostonians, he first visited Mount Desert Island in 1868 and later decided to make it his primary home. He envisioned the Sieur de Monts property as a managed landscape and the foundation stones on which the future park was built. He named the spring in honor of a French nobleman who led an expedition to this coastal region in the early 1600s. Besides donating his Sieur de Monts and Old Farm properties to the park, Dorr spent most of his inheritance to create the Acadia enjoyed today.

Bar Harbor, Maine · United States